Have you guys met Rachael Page yet? You may know her as David Rogers' girlfriend, or one of the folks on the advisory committee for CoLab Orlando (did anyone else notice the title of the page is "emailblast"?).
In lieu of meeting face-to-face, we have been having an email thread. I decided to get the conversation out of the back office and into the public forum.
On the setup of Florida Creatives:
A really fun quote I saw recently:
"Communities have to stop selling drinks and just build the bar."So true. If all we think about are the benefits of membership, and not the atmosphere in which membership takes place, how can we say we are building a community, as opposed to selling a product? This is a question I have asked myself many times.
By having an "unmeeting" -- no agenda, no nametags, no announcements, no hard start- and end-times -- just a place and a date -- only the basic building blocks of an assembly, what we are trying to do is allow people to make whatever they want out of it. We are not begging any participation, we are not mandating any attendance, we are providing tons of call-to-action, but it's all voluntary.
There are no explicit side-effects, only those that are derived from deeper commitment and a higher level of participation -- the more often you speak, and think about what it is you are saying, the more often people will want to listen.
On acting as a "lightning rod" for the community:
When I was younger, I liked to be the First Mate, not the Captain. I liked being "the guy behind the guy". I often found myself surrounded by leaders, founders of movements, heads of organizations, first-movers and the like. I liked working in the background, knowing that my contributions were appreciated, but I didn't care if I was singled out. When acknowledgment came, it was welcome. I was following orders, not giving them.
Then I came back to Orlando (after my hiatus in the Midwest) and all the leaders I found here were not getting it done for me. Even if I were to be the best possible support for them, our missions were not parallel, at least not without taking a 5,000 foot view of the situation. I felt ineffectual, like I was running in place, never getting closer to the destination. A few months later, without really considering my transformation, I made myself into a leader.
I label myself the "coordinator" (lowercase C) of Florida Creatives -- I can't be the Director, there is no action to direct -- I can't be the President, there was no election -- I can't be the Dictator, I don't give any orders. My job is to create the environment, introduce people, and evangelize my heart out. I hope the other folks involved feel empowered to do the same.
Just like Alex Hillman was saying in the Orlando Scene session -- people need to be given permission. The leaders in that room on Saturday were the folks who gave themselves permission.
On Coworking Orlando, CoLab or otherwise:
The really important thing to remember about something like a coworking space, particularly one in Orlando, is that people want to feel like it was their idea. John, the owner, wants to feel like his agenda is being met. Rachel, as the Secretary of Defense, wants to serve the people and ensure the purity of community. Myself, a renter, wants a work environment that allows me to be productive, where I can see my friends, make new connections, hatch new ideas, and set my own goals.
The problem is that with a coworking space, similar to a co-op, the "renters" are not renters. The core renters, or "anchors", are all part-owners. They accept responsibility for the space, not only in a fiduciary manner. They are mentors, rule-enforcers, the board of directors, event coordinators, brothers-in-arms, and indentured servants.
Without them, the space would have no reason to exist, and were it not for their continued efforts, the space would flounder and fall off the map. If not, it would be a members-only club for people who used to work in their underwear, and what fun is a club like that if you have to put on pants to go to the office?
You want to share your experience with your peers, and thousands of people all over the world have been coming to this conclusion for centuries. Now, certain spaces like that have a name, and it's called coworking.
These are just thoughts off the top of my head, let's keep the discussion going here.